runner’s relapse

I’m an off and on runner. For the past 13 years or so, my running routine has been on an up and down roller coaster – I’ve had various stints of being totally focused and into it, running almost every day of the week. But lately, those stints have been very few and far between, and I had gotten way too comfortable with my lack of a fitness routine.

So today, I made the attempt to get back into it! And I downloaded the Runkeeper Freeapp to motivate myself a little bit. First off, let me say this: even though I’m not a gung-ho runner, there is definite pleasure in getting a run started with the iPod on full blast on a beautiful morning. It felt good and I was instantly inspired to have more mornings like that. (Mark my words.)

Anyway, Runkeeper is a pretty great little app. It not only uses geolocation to track your mileage, but it also tracks your miles per hour, your route and how many calories you’ve burned. It stores all your info so you can see your progress over time, and syncs up your data with the Runkeeper website, which allows you to review your activities in more detail and make notes for yourself. It’s an excellent tool for people trying to get back into fitness and track their progress – perhaps for marathon trainers. You could probably use it more casually (which is probably what I will do) but I think serious runners would probably get more out of it…